Undercover F1 driver handed two penalties for ‘pushing too hard’ in karting outing

In a case of could’ve, should’ve and would’ve, Kimi Antonelli lost out on a first victory in 2025 when the Italian was hit with two penalties for “pushing too hard” at the Daytona Motorsport karting circuit.

Antonelli may have been racing under the alias of ‘Henry Shovlin’, but the name change didn’t change luck with the stewards as he added to his year’s penalty count on Saturday.

Kimi Antonelli ‘actually got two penalties for pushing too hard’

Antonelli was Formula 1’s rookie of the 2025 season as he brought in 150 points, 99 ahead of second-placed Isack Hadjar, and scored podiums in Canada, Sao Paulo and Las Vegas.

But he was also high up on the season’s penalty list.

He racked up 12 with his Mercedes team, although only five of those led to time penalties during grands prix – Dutch, Dutch, Italy, Las Vegas and Qatar.

Two more time penalties, however, can be added to his year’s tally after he made a surprise appearance at the Daytona Motorsport karting circuit in Milton Keynes post-F1 season.

Antonelli appeared at the track under the name ‘Henry Shovlin’, an apparent reference to long-serving Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin, and set the fastest lap of the race, going three seconds faster than any other driver in wet conditions.

His quickest lap of 1:24.5 was more than five seconds faster than the time that Williams driver Alex Albon managed in a previous appearance at the same circuit.

Despite his quick laps, Antonelli didn’t win the race with Daniel Prince telling the BBC that it was because the Formula 1 driver racked up not one, but two penalties.

Having completed the pre-race briefing, where none of his fellow competitors “had a clue” that Antonelli was in their midst, the 19-year-old then took to the karting track and showed impressive pace.

Pace, though, that was undone by his in-race penalties.

“He actually got two penalties for pushing too hard, so didn’t finish on the podium at the end of it,” he told Roberto Perrone on BBC Three Counties Radio.

“But he did get the fastest lap of the race by at least three seconds.”

Prince revealed that Antonelli went into the race incognito but once he took off his helmet “everyone realised who they’d been racing against.

“Everyone really mobbed him so a member of staff quickly rescued him and put him behind the desk for a cheeky photo by our celebrity leaderboard, and then he ran away and left.”

Albon, Isack Hadjar and Yuki Tsunoda also have their names listed on the Daytona Motorsport karting circuit records.

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